Mobile phones have been a great
revolution of mankind. Big static land phones have slowly got obsolete
and mobile phones are now an indispensable part of our everyday life.
In today’s world, almost every person owns, at least, one phone and a
few have more than one. The smart phones’ entry into the market have
made people go crazy and it is the gadget in which people are so
dependent that without it they would feel lost. It is now very evident
for almost all the industries that it is easy to reach customers via
apps. Most of the mobile solutions are dependent on the new age disruptive technologies.
Compared to other computing devices the reach of mobile/ smart phones
is huge. With its accessibility/ availability to the high profile
business magnets to a road side tea seller, mobile phones have filled up
the so- called “digital divide” to a larger extent.

Challenge
From its traditional role as a mere communication tool, mobile phones
have now become multipurpose gadgets used for both personal and
professional uses, which creates opportunities as well as challenges
like both sides of a coin. Technology shifts, proliferation of devices/
operating systems are creating challenges for hardware manufacturers and
application developers in terms of developing and rolling out new
products or updating it. The mobile application testing across various
devices and platforms has now become even more challenging. As there are
quite a lot of mobile makers in the market it is almost impossible to
ensure that proper mobile testing is done on all the devices, and to a
certain extent, it is not required as well. Digital modernization has
encouraged people of any age group to manage their important data or
images in the cloud, rely on apps that can work as reminders, use
messengers to keep in touch and many more. As the wants have now become
basic needs, one of the key areas that should be in focus is the Customer Experience.
The user’s geo, age group, and the targeted group of customer’s info is
crucial in deriving the best customer experience the user can have.
However, yet another point to be remembered is that in the competitive
mobility arena ‘go to market’ time has reduced much and if you delay,
someone else will take over that place. Hence, quality has to be ensured
in a short span. These facts will drive anyone to be choosy about the
devices when it comes to validation.

By considering a couple of parameters, we can nail down on the devices on which app needs to be tested.

Parameters to be considered are –
1. Type of devices
2. Form Factors
3. OS

Type of devices –
Now a days, most of the apps are made available in almost all types of
devices and hence we need to ensure that the User Interface and User Experience Testing parameters for the app are met in all types of devices including phones, tablets and phablets.

Form Factor –
In most of the cases, the size of the screen is miss-understood with the
resolution of the screen. These are the two exclusive parameters to be
considered. Resolution is the number of pixels on the screen,
irrespective of the screen size. How the app looks and objects placement
on the screen are dependent on this parameter. There could be two
devices of screen size 5 inch but their resolution might differ.

OS (iOS, Android, Windows and BlackBerry) –
The app is always built with the combination of new development and
third party features or services, in the end product. There is a
possibility where a developer would have tweaked third party features to
meet the product’s requirement. Hence, we need to ensure that the
combination of all these features works fine in multiple OS and their
different versions that are majorly in use. There is no point in testing
outdated versions of OS as the users will keep on moving towards the
updated versions. But this has to though through as to which is the
oldest version that we need to support for.

Matrix of devices shortlisted for testing
Note –

1. Below information is as per Gsmarena.com.
2. Only iOS and Android is considered in the below matrix to explain the exercise.

Type

Device

Resolution

OS versions

Size (inch)

Test Type

Android Tab

Nexus 10

2560 x 1600

5.X.X

10

Func & UX

Android Tab

Nexus 7

800 x 1280

5.X.X

7

UX

Android Tab

Micromax Canvas Tab P470

600 x 1024 pixels

4.4.x

7

Func & UX

Android Phones

Sony Xperia Z5

2160×3840

5.1.x

5.5

Func & UX

Android Phones

Nexus 6P

1440X2560

6.x

5.7

Func & UX

Android Phones

Samsung Galaxy S4

1080×1920

4.2.2

5

Func & UX

Android Phones

Moto G

720×1280

5.1.1

5

UX

Apple Phones

iPhone 5s

640 x 1136

iOS 7

4

Func & UX

Apple Phones

iPhone 5s

640 x 1136

iOS 9.x

4

Func

Apple Phones

iPhone 6

750 x 1334

iOS 8.x

4.7

Func & UX

Apple Phones

iPhone 6s

750 x 1334

iOS 9.x

4.7

UX

Apple Phones

iPhone 6s Plus

1080 x 1920

iOS 9.x

5.5

UX

Apple Tab

iPad Air 2

1536 x 2048

iOS 9.x

9.7

Func & UX

Apple Tab

iPad mini 2

1536 x 2048

iOS 8.x

7.9

Func

Though the above list is handpicked list
of devices, it looks exhaustive and very difficult to test in all of
them. The idea here is to cover all the form factors, OS and types of
devices with different brands and hence the list seems to be big.

There is no shortcut if we have to
validate the functionality in different OS versions and User Interface
& User Experience factors in different form factors. Hence, the
combination of devices and OS selection are done keeping these facts in
mind. For different versions of OS, functionalities are validated to
ensure that the newly developed piece of code and third party features
are working fine without any functional flaws. For different Form
Factors, UX parameters are validated to make sure that all the object in
the screen are fitting properly inside the screen as per the decided
mock ups and there are no overlaps or partially hidden objects.

While we do functional validation on
different devices it is obvious that you will make out the UI and UX
glitches. So when you are testing only User Experience
related scenarios you would know what is covered along with the
functional testing and more focus has to be shown in the other areas.

One should always keep an eye on the
market to know about the new devices or versions of OS or browsers that
come to market and see if they fit into the above table. With this
exercise, it is easy to arrive at the devices to be considered for
testing.

Despite the short development cycles, go to market pressures and increasing competition in the mobility
arena, it is key to do the mobile application testing across multiple
devices and platforms and it is daunting too. Effective and timely
mobile testing can enable device makers and application developers in
collecting appropriate metrics that improve the overall quality of
products and will be able to deliver amazing customer experiences.